When digital music technology entered the scene, it was done in the hopes that it would provide better, faster access to music, while making sure that everyone involved got paid. Unfortunately, things didn’t happen as planned, and now the music industry is facing an issue with big data.
The biggest issue the music industry is facing in terms big data comes from streaming services. While they can provide information to labels and publishers that is accurate, it is sent in an incompatible format for accounting purposes. This incompatibility means that tons of data is sent to song’s label or publisher in a hard copy form, which then has to be manually loaded into the system.
What’s worse, this task is left to an employee who is not equipped to handle such an influx of data. This leaves many in the music business facing more trouble than they had before digital music “came to make things better.” In addition, artists and/or songwriters are left with inaccurate statements of their royalties.
In many cases, labels and producers continue to receive monumental amounts of data, so much so that some complain that the extra cost of dealing with the data exceeds profits. This situation is likely to continue until a new system of accounting can be developed and, unfortunately, developing such a software system is expensive and takes time.
Read more on this story via Forbes.